Friday, June 26, 2009

More on the Media

In the previous post below, I referred to Bloomberg's accentuating the positive regarding today's incomes report. In fact, I decided not to comment that the title on the Bloomberg.com home page was even more laudatory than the positive title of the actual article. The home page headlined the article and has continued to have it as the lead article the entire day, as "Consumer Spending the U.S. Rises, Incomes Jump on Obama's Stimulus Efforts".

As if one heroic man did all this. And as stated, the article in the "below-the-fold" part got around to mentioning that, oh, wages and salaries FELL in May. What accounts for the discrepancy?

Households raised their savings rate to the highest level in more than 15 years in May as many used a big boost in money from the government's stimulus program to bolster nest eggs rather than to spend more.Still, with consumer spending expected to stay subdued, a sustained economic recovery seems doubtful anytime soon.

The biggest chunk of the income gain in May came from $250 payments for more than 50 million Americans receiving Social Security and other government benefit programs. In all, $13 billion of the one-time payments were mailed last month.

Millions of other workers benefited from the tax-credit part of the $787 billion stimulus plan. That program provides up to $400 for individuals and up to $800 to married couples. Workers began receiving that benefit in April in the form of less money withheld from pay, averaging about $10 per weekly paycheck.

The bigger Social Security benefits pushed incomes up 1.4 percent in May, the biggest gain in a year. Yet it did not cause a similar jump in spending. Consumer spending rose only 0.3 percent. . .DoctoRx here. More and more, it looks as though the owner of Bloomberg is acting like the politician of a deep blue city, with his editors and perhaps reporters shining light on the side of the news that is more favorable for the ultimate Leader in Washington.

As old media crumbles, we see in Bloomberg.com perhaps the ultimate intersection of New Media, Big Finance and politics. It is not a pretty sight.